A/N: Not exactly overjoyed with anything past the two introductory paragraphs on this one but, hey, AraSol's great. Humanstuck AU where Sollux is moving into a house that ghost Aradia is haunting. Cute ghosty/human relationship ensues. Also if you think I'm going to write Sollux's lisp in, then you can think again losers, imagine it yourselves. Title from Ghosting by Mother Mother (such a great song)
She's like a sheet of cellophane draped over a cloud of fog, the blue-grey figure of a girl, hanging nonchalant in the chilled air and flickering in the strip lights of the basement. The damp fibres of a cardboard box that has been left in the back of a van for too long cling to your fingertips, clammy with nerves and anxiety. The box, previously propped on your knee, drops to the floor, your grip growing lax. Books and batteries, toy cars and DVDs explode from within the box. A lifeless remote control shatters across the floor and an alarm clock bounces till it's dented against the last step on the stairs.
You stare at her for a good five seconds before she disappears, winking out of existence for all you know. You blame it on the stale air down here, and tell yourself that moving nerves and lack of sufficient oxygen are just messing with your head. You clean up the mess you made and slot the old cardboard box wherever you can find a space for it.
There's no such thing as ghosts.
You find she likes to talk to you when the lights are out, and she hides in the shadows, laughing and whispering and making idle conversation with you during nightfall. The first words you hear are after seeing her for the first time in the basement.
But there's still no such thing as ghosts.
"I'm sorry for scaring you." she chuckles as you lie in bed, red digits flashing 03:30 beside your head on a nightstand. "In the basement I mean."
You don't reply the first few times, simply stiffen when you hear her speaking and wait for her to stop. You get the courage to reply eventually, when you're sitting at the kitchen table, prodding at a plate of burnt bacon and eggs and trying to read a magazine you'd found abandoned in the old desk you'd been left for the study.
She sat on the sideboard; one leg kicked up on the other, and hid in the long blue shadow that the kitchen cupboards cast over the wall and counter. All that was visible in the near darkness were her huge, opalescent eyes; pearly and pupiless, as they blinked your way.
"My name's Aradia. Aradia Megido" She grins, light glinting over a set of perfectly straight teeth. Your tongue automatically runs over your own crooked teeth. "It makes sense that you tell me your name if we're going to be living together."
The phrase 'living together' makes you wince, sounds too familiar, too friendly.
"I'm Sollux Captor." You push your plate away, into the middle of the table. You can't cook anyways, you'll pick something up at the coffee shop in town. "And I guess you're my ghost."
A hollow chuckle bubbles from her lips and her eyes narrow,
"Your ghost sounds a little too possessive, but sure." She leans forward, her head and shoulders breaking the parallel lines of shadow and buzzing like TV static. She smiles again, a wide, gaunt beam with too many teeth and framed by bleeding lips. "Sollux's ghost sounds like a good nickname."
Aradia likes to follow you, to hover above your head whilst you eat lunch in the garden or glide down the hallways when you're trying to sleep. She drapes herself over the computer monitor when you're programming and you try to swat her off, only for your hands to move straight through her skin like they're spider webs.
"Ew, that's beyond gross." You'll wave your hand around after accidentally sticking it through your ghost friend's torso and she'll just laugh, toss her decrepit hair and reply,
"So are you."
You're not sure when Aradia Megido, the dead girl that lives in your basement and follows you like a lapdog for her own amusement, became your best friend. She's plenty friendly, sure, always up for a round of banter or a walk through the small woods at the end of your garden. She's loud too, and you think everything that ever 'went thump in the night' was probably her accidentally knocking a vase over. Whilst she's not the typical company you keep, somehow you find yourself growing very attached to Miss Megido and her dazzling smile.
You feel as though a line has been crossed when the idea of having a crush on her arises.
It's not a thought that you can simply push away, obviously. It makes sense that you would end up with romantic feelings for her at one point or another, but she's dead and you are very much alive. It's doomed from the start, and just simply wouldn't work.
It doesn't stop you from staring at her like a love-struck school girl though.
When she giggles, you listen like it's your favourite song. When she does some ghostly party trick like making her eyes glow or walking through walls, you watch like it's the most interesting thing you've ever seen. The gentle gust of stale wind that she brings with her every time she suddenly appears becomes a sensation welcomed. The damp prickle against your skin when she sits close is exhilarating, and you really wish you could touch her – if only once.
You think you've hit rock bottom when you come home one day with a bouquet of flowers for her.
"Aradia?" you call into the empty hallway, shrugging off your jacket and kicking your shoes underneath the hat rack, "Are you in here or the garden or what?"
You glance at the hall mirror and a round white face grins at you from within the frame, she winks as you frown.
"What did I tell you about doing the mirror thing, it freaks me out. C'mon, get outta there."
Aradia giggles and steps out of the glass, drifting around the hallway for a bit before settling on the stairs, pointing her toes together. She purses her lips, a plush cardinal line decorating her face and asks,
"What've you got there? Behind your back?"
Sweat gathers in beads around your temple and you produce the bouquet of red gladioli wordlessly from behind your back. You attempt a smile but you know your teeth are horrendous – that's what you get for not wearing braces in high school.
"Uh, they're flowers." Yes, she knows that you idiot. "I mean, they're flowers for you. I wanted to get you something nice."
Cupping her round cheeks with her hands, Aradia's face lights up like it's Christmas. You hold the bouquet towards her and she fawns over it, inspecting each of the leaves and petals.
"Aw! Sollux Captor if I had blood I would be blushing crimson right now." The idea is morbid but you can't help but smile as she sniggers. She's always had a dark sense of humour.
"It's no problem, AA." You reply, awkwardly running your fingertips over the shoots of the flowers, "I'm glad you like them."
Aradia smirks, her entire face lifting mischievously with the simper. A devilish glint flashes through her eyes and she sits up slightly, leaning towards you. She angles her head a bit, pouting in her concentration and squints at you like she's trying to figure something out.
"Yes?" you ask as she flicks her eyes over you a couple times. She holds a hand flat forward and in your face in a signal for you to stop talking.
"Shut up for a moment Sollux, I'm doing something."
You raise your eyebrows just an inch, bending down slightly uncomfortably so you're at her level.
For a second you're not entirely sure it happens, but it does, and with a cold breeze shifting over the skin of your cheek Aradia presses a kiss to the corner of your mouth. She lingers for a second, pulling back and smiling innocently, like that didn't just happen at all.
You, for one, didn't even know ghosts could touch people, as you'd never been able to touch her before, but you don't really care right now. With a shared smile, Aradia leans forward and kisses you again.
No, you don't really care at all.